CyberFootprint

Yeah, this post is a rant. It might upset some of my fellow PROs but I’m willing to take that chance.  When Matthew Stibbe talked about Frankenquoting, I thought he made it up just to be funny. Now I know better.

Since the beginning of my time in PR, I’ve started collecting examples of mutilation of English language. I cannot resist sharing two examples of bad quoting. Unsurprisingly, all of these tortured sentences come from news realeases.

Behold the first example of linguistic weirdness. It comes from a press release of a federation associating leasing companies in Europe. When I first read it, I thought I’d heard nails scratching on a blackboard.

Stimulating demand from businesses to increase capital expenditure is vital if the European economy is to experience more than a tentative recovery in 2010 and will be necessary if leasing is to continue to fulfill its investment enabling role.

Moving on to something shorter and just as horrible as the example before. Buzzwords clutter! This makes me want to set fluffy bunnies on fire.

Commercial structure of Company XYZ is leveraging on the wide European network that is enabling clear synergies and value to its customers especially on cross border deals.

I am only missing there words like “solution”, “legacy” and “committment to customers”.

PR people, I know you are working for a company full of uptight people with neckties but that is no excuse for using this sort of vocabulary. People who come up with this wording should be legally barred from touching the keyboard again.

End of  the rant

Image credit: DerrickT